Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I regret that I am currently not in a position to answer the Deputy on that issue. I understand he is saying this should be the top priority in the capital budget but if children had no school to attend next September, the Deputy would be clamouring about hopeless planning such that the Department cannot use its capital in order to ensure every child has a school place. We are trying to balance all those conflicting pressures. It is often the situation that there are more schools in the pipeline waiting for the go-ahead than there is funding available and we have to manage our funding to meet those demands. That is the constraint under which we are working.

As regards capital spending, both this and the former Government led by Fianna Fáil sought to protect our education system as much as possible and that continues to be the case. As the Deputy knows, we have made commitments regarding an increased pupil-teacher ratio, guidance counsellors, the resource teaching model and SNAs. We have sought to meet those very immediate children's needs.

It is a balancing act, but all I can say to the Deputy is that I am very aware of the concern he expresses. I will work with my Department to see whether we can resolve the issue.

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